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Sony Claims 14 Million PSN Users

Today is the PlayStation 3's second birthday, and in typical Sony fashion the company is celebrating by way of its PR department, as the company has declared that there are 14 million online PlayStation Network accounts to go with "nearly 17 million" PlayStation 3 systems.

"With 14 million active accounts and 273 million pieces of content downloaded, we know that you're thirsting for ... digital entertainment," wrote Sony marketer John Koller on Sony's official PlayStation Blog.

Sony announced in late October that it had sold 16.84 million consoles worldwide, but today's announcement of 14 million PSN accounts implies--assuming one online account per console--that over 80 percent of PlayStation 3 owners go online, which if true would be a staggeringly high rate.

How many consoles have actually gone online remains unclear, as the PlayStation 3 allows multiple PlayStation Network accounts per console.

To compare, rival Microsoft has not updated its Xbox Live user statistics since summer, when the company announced it had 12 million users. Microsoft claims that 19 million Xbox 360s have been sold, but that figure is from March 2008.

Nintendo has not publicized online usage statistics for its Wii console, but the little waggler that could has definitively won this round in the console wars with nearly 35 million customers.